To Play With Fire
by aphroditesroses
Summary: You had never planned to amount to a lot in life. You just wanted to live nicely and go join a circus or whatever- hadn't found your calling yet, unlike the many people that had boarded the hero train. That is, until a certain someone got you inexplicably mad and told you that with your quirk, there was simply no way for you to become a hero; out of spite, you joined UA.


Let us get this clear first.

She had no desire to become a hero.

None.

And all the presumptuous, try-hard brats around her were dying to get into UA. The top hero-school of the country.

Now, it wasn't as if she had bad grades, or was incompetent at life and defending herself- far from it, in fact. She was good at what she did, but she had no idea what she wanted to do in her future. She was glad her parents hadn't pushed her into a career choice, and this was only Junior High, after all. She had loads of time left to make a decision, even though she didn't particularly mind anything that was not a desk job; she liked to think of herself as a chameleon in that regard. Either way, despite initially not minding it - hero work - she liked to say that she had a certain survival instinct, one which people tended to disregard when tempted with fame and glory.

Hers however was thrown out the window the moment that _someone _told her that she could never amount to being a hero.

Foolish Bakugo. She almost felt sorry for him.

Didn't he know that by telling someone that they couldn't do something, it made them want to do it even more?

.

It had all started on an regular day at school - well, as regular as one can get attending Aldera Junior High and having the outstanding luck of being not only in Bakugo-fucking-Katsuki's class, but in the quirkiness' kids class as well.

In fact, as luck would have it, they were all in the very same class. (Y/N), Bakugo, and Midoriya; and the commotion the Bakugo-Midoriya combination made, made (Y/N) want to retch. It was disgusting.

So she spent most of her days with her arms folded on her desk and her head laid face-first in said arms, drowning out the noise that her classmates made, and was planning to do exactly that for the remaining last school day of Junior High; unfortunately, fate had but other plans for her.

Yeah, sleep seemed like an excellent idea, right about now. But, like we said, fate has but other plans.  
Because today, when the teacher mentions the high school applications she had collected yesterday and starts droning on about where people wanted to go to - which was mostly UA and (Y/N) distinctly remembers her mentioning Midoriya's name _(is he applying there too?)_ \- the whole class erupts not only into loud chatter, no - they also start using their quirks.

And on top of all the noise, one person manages to be heard by everybody, and they all - the extras, as that someone puts it - shut up to hear the one and only Bakugo Katsuki make an announcement.

At first, (Y/N) is grateful for the stillness, but then she immediately regrets it when she sees him standing on the table and take a deep breath, presumably to start a speech.

(Y/N) wonders if he'll shout in this one too.

He points at everyone in the class, "None of you will even survive the UA entrance exam," he juts out his thumb, with which he points at himself, "Only I have the quirk for it, and I'm top of the class! Do any of you extras really think you can compete with me? I'll break your bones if you try!"

In his hands, tiny explosions go off, threatening. (Y/N) doesn't care, she has more important things to think about, such as what high school to go to.

"Shut up," she mumbles from on top of her arms. He swings his head towards her, red eyed enraged and his mouth pulled into something between a grimace and a grin. For extra flair, she flings her shoe at him - then wishes she didn't because in the next moment she's got one shoe on and he's holding the charred remains of the other.

"I'LL FUCK YOU UP, EXTRA!"

Oh, well.

"Bakugou would you just stop?" she mumbles, right intandem with the teacher calmly adjusting her glasses and requesting said boy to step down from the table he was just staning on.

He obeys, fuming.

"Which reminds me," the teacher starts again, "(Y/N), you haven't handed your form in yet. Why?"

"I don't know which school I want to go to."

"Hm, have you at least thought about whether you want to enter? For example, a hero or regular school?"

"Hah," Bakugo drawls on from the back, "As if you'd get into a hero school. They wouldn't want someone with a shitty quirk like yours."

(Y/N) spares a glance at him, "You know, just for that, I think I'm gonna sign up for the UA entrance exam."

And then Bakugo goes back to yelling obscenities.

(Y/N) can't be bothered to listen to them; she puts her head back onto her arms, and tries to sleep. And after some time, she manages to succeed.

Until another fucking deafening explosion rings out from next to her and the smell of burning wood has her shooting up, alert. _Not this again_.

(It reminds her from the few times she's almost managed to burn down her house and of the one time a burglar had tried his luck on their house. He quickly found out that it was not a good idea.)

(Y/N) blinks a few times quizzically, and finds out that the victim of Bakugo's rage is not her, but her classmate, Midoriya.

"- you dare to try join UA?"

She has half the mind toeing sleep. After all, Bakugo hasn't seen her awake yet. But what he says next has her fuming - perhaps even more than Bakugo was earlier today. Not enough to have her stand up and drag him off the poor boy, but enough for her to open her eyes fully and observe the situation.

"You'd have a better chance taking a swan dive off the roof and hoping for a quirk in your next life."

It makes her realise how much of a piece of shit Bakugo really is. But he doesn't say anything more after that, he just leaves the class, his lackeys trailing behind him. He looks prideful, as always - like he hasn't just told someone to go kill themselves. It makes (Y/N) wonder how often he has done this, if he's done it at all.

And she hopes that Midoriya is used to it by now, because if he does decide to listen to Bakugo they just might have a suicide case on their hands.

It definitely doesn't help that their classroom - the room in which they are in right now - is on the third floor.

Midoriya turns around to face the window, and looks down. (Y/N) stands up to a crouch, tense, and hopes he's looking for his stuff Bakugo has the tendency of throwing out the window. But now, Midoriya's actually starting to lean out the window slightly.

Who is she kidding? She knows how much Bakugo bullies Midoriya. But never in her life did she know that he took it seriously - she has always thought that he brushed it of, because Bakugo did have the habit of bullying everyone.

And as soon as Midoriya shuffles up his arms and lifts his leg to the ledge, shaking, she bolts out of her chair and tugs him back.

Perhaps it is a little forceful, perhaps not, because they both come tumbling down onto the floor, the boy on top of her. She does not hesitate to hold him, envelop him in a hug and mutter a string of "I'm sorry"s like a mantra, stroking his hair.

And when she looks up to him, she finds he has a glistening trail of wetness on his cheeks.

He's crying.

And then suddenly she's crying too, pressing her face into the boy she hardly knows because he sure as hell doesn't deserve this. She makes sure to tell him exactly that.

.

"Hey Midoriya," she starts. They are outside the school now; the green-haired boy has calmed down enough for people to not take notice of what had transpired in the classroom. But if someone had looked closely, they would have seen the occasional tremor in his arms or the falter in his footsteps - not to mention the red rings around his eyes and the a little too firm grip (Y/N) had on his hand.

Not that he could blame her. He'd rather have it this way, anyway.

"Y-Yeah?" He does not meet her gaze.

"Hmm, which way is your house?"

"Ah-" he's surprised by the question, but answers it nevertheless, "down the main road, it takes some time to get there."

She tugs at his hand, "Come on, I'm walking you home today." Her conviction is firm, as firm as when Kacchan says that he's going to UA or when he proclaims to be the best. They're quite similar, actually, now that he's thinking about it - but theres no comparison; she's the gentler one, sympathetic.

"...Okay."

Guided by Midoriya - she follows the slight tugs he gives her and she's surprised he hasn't let go yet - they gradually leave the pretty little cottages marring the suburbs near the school, and enter the city in the slow trudge they walked in. She is careful enough to watch Midoriya's expression, alert for any signs of regret betrayed by his face. Instead she sees only his eyebrows pull together at the front and his eyes flick across their surroundings, straying far and yet never gazing at one place for long.

She can only interpret this as melancholy - or appreciation? She settles with both, and squeezes his hand. When his gaze is ripped from the outside, replaced by a rather glazed look he sent her, she almost regrets it.

"Hey, do you mind while I just take a quick run to the store?"

"S-sure, I'll wait for you."

"Thanks! Be right back, I promise," she squeezes his hand again, "Don't move!"

As fast as she can, she nips in and grabs a packet of tissues and a notebook. She's out in a jiffy, stuffing both purchases in her already filled bag (they clank against a semi-full glass bottle), proud by how fast she was - her almost two-minute trip was a record time, and there was no queue ! - but then, when she searches the outside for the green-haired boy, she doesn't find him, and instead of panicking, she is just disappointed.

_Every day I get more tempted to go absolutely batshit and stop caring._

There was no way she was letting him out of her sights for too long again. So she texts her mother that she'd be home a little later today, and tries to explain the situation as best as she could without giving away his name.

_'Mom's sympathetic, she'll understand'_

The first thing she does on her own is search for high grounds - surprisingly, there's almost nobody out on the streets today, and she's partly lucky for that; on one hand, she could have asked someone if they would have seen him.

One of the thing she scales that day is a way leading to the train tracks near her. When she doesn't find anything, she clambers up more things, painfully aware of how much time she spends climbing and hopeful that the high ground she uses as posts will lead to finding Midoriya and make up for the time lost. But it seems like wherever she climbs on, she can't find him - she can't find anyone, as a matter of fact; and so gradually and gradually she ascends greater things in height in search for more ground area to search on, until she's at the top of a large apartment complex.

She's terrified.

And then it gets even worse, because the only thing she spots below her, maybe almost half a kilometer away is a large green mass and an even larger, enormous crowd around it in a semicircle.

It's the only place she's found people so far, and her best bet; if Midoriya was anywhere, he'd be there, running towards trouble. Internally, she curses him out for being so heroic. On the outside she's glad she's found him.

So her descend begins - she finds the small hatch she clambered onto the roof through, and drops though it into the building. She makes quick work of the stairs, sliding down the rails and slyly slips out the open window she found on her way in.

In the next five minutes, when she runs towards the fray - she cannot believe how much of a dumbass she is, running towards danger like the rest of the dumbasses - the only thing she hears is the rhythmic rush of blood in her ears and the stagnant clanks of the notebook against the glass bottle in her backpack. It's almost peaceful to her, almost a little exciting, the adrenaline rush and the mad dash she makes towards the masses of people she can hear murmur and shout, however next, what she hears when she arrives, panting, is also what she dreaded.

It is a loud, hoarse voice, "I lost my body... Surely you'll give me yours!"

And then she hears explosions.

Very, _very _familiar loud explosions.

_'It would be so nice not to care right now, thank you very much."_

But alas, the world doesn't work like that. Not right now, anyways.

She hopes she's wrong when she speculates the identity behind the person emitting them.

When she pushes her way into the large crowd, taking exactly tow elbows to the face (the people that sent them get pushed a little extra hard), she prays that she'll find Midoriya there. After all, he has an uncanny habit of gravitating to the nearest hero-in-action.

She has the confidence that Bakugo will last long enough. Or better yet, that there's someone else in the green slimes' clutches instead; maybe then she wouldn't feel so guilty about entertaining the thought of grabbing Midoriya and bolting. But it's suspiciously silent there, she thinks, so she wrestles herself in to the frontmost part of the crowd, where she can peer through the cracks between the people's bodies.

Her hopes aren't answered, but her prayer is; she first finds Izuku, a little to the left of her, then figures out that the figure the villain - she doesn't know whether to call it a villain, it's more an entity, if anything else - is keeping captive is Bakugō. And of course, he isn't alone there, not physically, at least, because on the other side of the barrier that had been set up are people clad in colourful costumes. At first, she's relieved to find out that there's someone there but then realises something that makes her face devoid of colour and anger take it's filthy place in her heart.

The _filthypathetic_ pro-heroes are doing nothing but watch.


End file.
